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Traditional hiring methods are becoming obsolete. To hire PMs, Mercor uses a single test for AI fluency, then immediately shifts to whiteboarding. This assesses fundamental skills like judgment, experimental design, and statistics—capabilities that cannot be outsourced to AI and reveal a candidate's core thinking.
With LLMs making remote coding tests unreliable, the new standard is face-to-face interviews focused on practical problems. Instead of abstract algorithms, candidates are asked to fix failing tests or debug code, assessing their real-world problem-solving skills which are much harder to fake.
To accurately assess candidates, interviews must be split. One part must be a "Zero AI" test to evaluate raw problem-solving ability and foundational knowledge, complete with cheat detection. The other part must be an "AI-Max" test to assess their skill in leveraging AI tools to be a "roboticist."
Rather than creating assessments that prohibit AI use, hiring managers should embrace it. A candidate's ability to leverage tools like ChatGPT to complete a project is a more accurate predictor of their future impact than their ability to perform tasks without them.
Traditional product sense questions are being replaced. AI PM candidates should expect to solve problems live using AI tools or design complex AI-native systems. This shift assesses a candidate's hands-on "builder" capabilities and deep understanding of modern AI architecture.
To assess a product manager's AI skills, integrate AI into your standard hiring process rather than just asking theoretical questions. Expect candidates to use AI tools in take-home case studies and analytical interviews to test for practical application and raise the quality bar.
To build an AI-native team, shift the hiring process from reviewing resumes to evaluating portfolios of work. Ask candidates to demonstrate what they've built with AI, their favorite prompt techniques, and apps they wish they could create. This reveals practical skill over credentialism.
Ramp requires all new hires, regardless of role, to be proficient with AI tools. The interview process for product managers now includes a practical session where candidates must build and present a functional product prototype using AI, demonstrating hands-on skill rather than just theoretical knowledge.
To hire for the AI era, HubSpot fundamentally changed its marketing hiring process for every role. Instead of asking candidates to create strategy decks, they now require applicants to build solutions with AI during the interview, testing practical application and AI fluency over theoretical knowledge.
Since AI assistants make it easy for candidates to complete take-home coding exercises, simply evaluating the final product is no longer an effective screening method. The new best practice is to require candidates to build with AI and then explain their thought process, revealing their true engineering and problem-solving skills.
Traditional hiring assessments that ban modern tools are obsolete. A better approach is to give candidates access to AI tools and ask them to complete a complex task in an hour. This tests their ability to leverage technology for productivity, not their ability to memorize information.